Obama will announce Foxx's nomination on Monday, a day before the mayor's 42nd birthday, the official said. ... Foxx, the first Democrat elected to the Charlotte mayor's office in 22 years, has long seemed a person on the way up. Foxx's transportation credentials include his push for expanding the
city’s LYNX streetcar to UNC-Charlotte, creating the Charlotte Regional
Intermodal Facility that transfers cargo between trucks and trains, and
building a new runway at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

As an African-American, Foxx will also help address complaints about a
perceived lack of diversity among Obama's top advisers. Conan O'Brien
joked about that topic Saturday night, telling
the president during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner
that "your hair is so white, it could be a member of your Cabinet."

Attorney General Eric Holder and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice are the only Blacks currently serving in the Obama Administration cabinet.

Foxx was in favor of personnel policy changes protecting LGBT
workers, instituted by former City Manager Curt Walton in April 2010 and
December 2012. The mayor also supported the addition of domestic
partner benefits to the city’s budget in June 2012. The mayor also made several historic firsts with the LGBT community,
becoming the first sitting mayor to address LGBT constituents in a
public forum at the LGBT Community Center of Charlotte in December 2010.

Foxx also spoke out against Amendment One, the state constitutional
amendment banning recognition of same-sex marriages passed by voters in
May 2012.

Charlotte has the distinction of being the state's only major city to lack protections for LGBT employees. There are also no statewide protections for LGBT citizens or employees in North Carolina.

Foxx said earlier this month that he would not seek a
third term as mayor of North Carolina's largest city. The City Council will be tasked with appointing an interim mayor after Foxx submits his resignation, reports the Observer.

Comments

Jim J, I am having the same initial reaction! The last thing CHARLOTTE needs right now and NC can't suffer is a turn-back and if we lose this great mayor only to make room for a conversative, the GSR will be shameful.

Yeah, it has been the mission of NC GOP to retroactively return NC to its hardcore, knuckle-dragging, numb-skull socially regressive roots. NC (along with VA and FL) until recently has evaded this fate unlike the rest of the South. They were well on their way of being like DC and MD as the few non-conservative Southern states.